How to Upgrade Your Grout
(on a Budget)
Back Story on our Home
In 2017, my husband and I bought a cute little house in Florida. It was a great size for our family of three, and while we knew there were some projects we wanted/needed to do around the house. We were ecstatic. One of the areas that needed to be upgraded was the backyard; the yard had NO GRASS. There were a few sprigs here and there. In my brain at that moment, I thought "How hard can it be to grow grass?" What a fool I was. Here is a picture from 2019, two years after we bought the house, and 2 years of grass-growing progress.
I spent years stressing over this yard. The amount of sand coming into our house was overwhelming and took a major toll on my general happiness and mental health. Who was bringing in all of this sand? Let me introduce you to the culprits.
Rosko is the yellow lab mix, Mr. Beagle is the beagle (yes, clever, I know), and Zoey is the German. All rescues! Rosko came from a shelter, Mr. Beagle was abandoned by a military family and was found wandering the woods near our house, and Zoey was abandoned as a 5 week old in a park (humans are such jerks). Cute as they are, these little furballs track more sand into my house than there is sand on the beach. I could vacuum my floors 6 times a day and still have sandy, dirty feet. I have tried everything. I sowed multiple brands and types of grass seed, I bought every vacuum cleaner on the planet, I tried brushing my dogs every day, I got a rug for the inside and outside to trap the sand.......NOTHING WORKED.
My family thought I was insane. They told it couldn't possibly be as bad as I described. My sister and her family came to stay with us December 2019 while they were in between duty stations in the Navy. She sat me down, beers in hand, and told me she really thought I was being dramatic but she can see now how challenging it has to be to try and deal with all of the sand.
I will post about how I manage the sand in my house separately, but I have found some tricks that worked.
My real breakthrough was identifying the major problem that needed to be fixed INSIDE the house.... our grout. The grout is a black hole for the sand coming into the house. It gets sucked in and refuses to leave. The coarse and porous texture from years of abuse would cause dirt, sand and dirty water to absorb into the grout with every attempt to clean it. Our house, we learned the hard way, was a fixer-upper. The previous owners did their own contracting work to upgrade things around the house, including the floors. The tiles are uneven, the grout has deep grooves and holes, and overall is very coarse and porous. The sand was getting trapped in the grout grooves, and even the vacuum cleaner had trouble getting it all out (my Dyson gets a run for its money). When I learned to pay more attention to the grout when cleaning the floors, even bleach couldn't undo the years of dirty-filled trauma they had been through. This is where Grout Pens comes in handy.
Grout Pen, on Amazon
I had heard of grout paint before, and at one point in time, when we toyed with putting our house on the market, our real estate agent highly recommended we invest in redoing or painting our grout. I stumbled across this magical pen on Amazon when searching for solutions. The more I looked into this product, the more intrigued I became. I took a risk and bought it, not prepared for how absolutely amazed I would be at the results.
This pen is a grout paint pen that restores your grout in the process. You will not need to seal your grout before or after use. You simply choose a color, select the smaller or larger sized tip of the pen, and get to work! The pens can be used in the kitchen, bathroom, backsplash....anywhere you need a revamp. The paint is water-based, non toxic, quick drying and covers 60 meters of grout! 60 METERS! There are 11 magical colors to choose from.
Before and After
Take a look at some before pictures. Our grout was supposed to be white, as you can see it is NOT. In the kitchen area, there were a few lines of grout that were nearly black (I have no clue why, but it drove me BONKERS). I followed all of the directions on the box and got to work. I had immediate gratification, and have spoken about nothing else since. The picture below shows you what the grout looks like up close, before painting. Notice the uneven tiles and hole in the grout in picture 3.
This is what the same area looks like after 1-2 stripes of this paint pen. LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCE! I still can't get over it.
Mittens (the kitten) couldn't help herself but get involved as I continued working on the grout. She's not a very good helper when it comes to home projects. She's a great cuddler though!
This is the final picture of the area when I finished. The floor is so bright and clean. One pen, and a major transformation. I am in heaven.
The best part, besides the immediate positive transformation for the floor and my sanity, is how easy the grout is to clean now! This pen not only paints but restores. I researched the product and looked into every question and review on the page. You will not need to seal your grout when you are finished with the product. **I do not know this based on experience. Your situation may be different than what I read in reviews** My grout was very porous and absorbed dirt and sand like an actual black hole. Now, when I vacuum and mop, I can see the dirt getting sucked away and the grout remaining clean without me scrubbing it with bleach and a toothbrush.
Tips and Tricks with Grout Pens
- Choose a color that is a little darker than what you want. I chose "Cream", and as you can see in the pictures, it looks more white than cream. There are 11 wonderful colors to choose from
- If your grout is coarse and uneven like mine, the pen tips tends to fray. I will insert pictures below. I reached out to the company inquiring about proper use to prevent fraying, and was able to get some extra pen tips. Their customer service is outstanding.
- There are two sizes to best meet your grout needs. The small pen is 5mm and the large pen is 15mm. I have used the small pen so far.
- To complete one room or area, you will need more than 1 pen. My kitchen took me 2 pens.
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